Actua Sports Dealt A New Hand

Sheffield UK, February 1
st 2013.
Actua Sports, one of the games industry's long lost
franchises, is coming back to a new generation of players and a new
generation of platforms with new generation of games.

Ian Stewart, the founder of Gremlin Interactive, the creator of
Actua, is resurrecting the brand, with the announcement of
Actua Poker.

Promising a fast, fun, best-in-class experience, which focuses
on the player, Stewart has launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise
funds to bring back
Actua.

The goal is to raise £30,000 to develop and release
Actua Poker, with Facebook as the lead platform.

Stewart explains the choice of poker as the first title in the
new Actua series, “The original
Actua games were huge projects, with large development
teams, which brought major sports such as football, tennis, golf
and ice hockey to consoles and PC. Times have changed however and
for the first new
Actua title, we wanted to create something which didn't
require the huge team, or huge budget, but which in our opinion has
not yet been successfully created. I'm a serious poker fan, but all
the games out there are pretty focused on extracting money from
players. They're not a great deal of fun to play. Getting to the
game itself, in between all the pop-ups, offers to try other games,
reminders to pay more money, requests to invite friends and the
cheesy pretend casino graphics, means that the real fun - the poker
- gets lost.”

“We're planning to change all that. Our focus is on the
game mechanic and the player's skill. Novices can get the help and
advice they need, while more experienced players can switch off the
aids and get greater rewards for using their own strategy and
judgement.”

Those who choose to back the Kickstarter campaign will find
themselves extremely well rewarded, according to Stewart:

“We've spoken to a number of professional players and
serious poker fans about what they'd consider an incentive to
supporting the game and we've built a rewards structure that will
support every single backer, each and every single time they play
the game. Instead of t-shirts, or postcards, we're giving every
backer the one thing poker players always need –
chips.”

“Everyone who supports the game will receive a huge
multiplier which will increase their contribution and give them a
massive bank balance within the game. For example, somebody who
contributes just £3 (approx $5) will receive over $3.75
million in game currency, with higher backers getting multiple
millions to start with and further bonuses every day they play,
allowing them to play for the highest stakes, every time they
visit.”

Contributors can also influence the design of game, with all
backers receiving updates on the artwork, game design and access to
the live beta for input and feedback – something Stewart is
very keen to encourage.

“The idea is to create the ultimate online poker
game,” says Stewart. “One which is focused on giving
players the best experience, instead of treating them like cash
dispensers.”

Actua Poker is being developed in Sheffield, by a team of
experienced developers, overseen by Stewart.

The Kickstarter campaign runs for 30 days. That's only
£1000 per day to bring back one of the UK's lost classics -
and give players the chance to play the game of their dreams, for
the highest possible stakes.

ENDS

Notes To Editors

About Actua Sports

Actua Sports was a sports video games series which comprised
over a dozen titles, created and publisher by Gremlin Interactive
from 1995 until 2000. The series covered a variety of well knows
sports including football, golf, tennis, ice hockey and pool,
across popular video games platforms including the Sony
PlayStation, Sega Saturn, Windows PC and Macintosh computer.

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